UK to provide £36 million for Nepal peace process

The government of the United Kingdom (UK) has announced to support the peace process of Nepal. 

Gareth Thomas, UK International Development Minister, on Sunday announced support of £13 million to Nepal's Peace Trust Fund and at least £23.5 million in debt relief until 2015, news reports from the UK said.

The UK will give an immediate boost of £ 4.6 million to the government led Nepal Peace Trust Fund to help push the peace process forward. This is made up of £1.5 million from its aid budget to Nepal and £0.8 million from the UK's Global Conflict Prevention Pool. A further £2.3 million comes from the UK Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative for 2006/ 07, which the Nepali government has allocated to the Peace Trust Fund.

The UK Department for International Development (DFID) will make an additional £8.5 million available for the Peace Trust Fund, depending on progress made on public financial management. The UK will also provide debt relief through the UK MDRI of at least £23.5 million until 2015 to help Nepal meet its debt service payments to the World Bank.

Thomas said: "This is the first real chance to bring peace to Nepal during the last decade. The agreement is in place, the political process is moving forward and plans have been drawn up to rebuild and bring long term, sustainable development to the country.

"UK funding, along with contributions from other key donors, is essential to make this happen. We cannot afford to let the chance of peace dissolve and progress to be lost. The cost in human suffering and the impact on the country's future development would be unacceptable.

"The UK is committed to supporting sustainable peace in Nepal, now in the immediate transition to peace, and in the long term, but Nepal's political leadership must meet the challenge of building an effective, inclusive and accountable state that all of its people can benefit from."

Thomas, who is visiting Nepal from Monday, will meet with representatives from across the whole political spectrum as part of the vital engagement with all sides of the conflict in Nepal over the last decade. He will stress the importance of the need for the process to be inclusive in order to be successful.

Thomas also announced that the UK will increase its development aid to Nepal by 17% from £37 million in the current year 2006/07 to £43 million in 2007/08. He indicated further increases in the coming years if the government makes progress on increasing accountability to the people of Nepal and progress on the peace process.